Born Ella Yelich-O'Connor on 7 November 1996 in Auckland's North Shore, Lorde listened to the likes Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, The Smiths and Nick Drake, alongside soul artists such as Etta James and Otis Redding when she's growing up. With a mother who is a celebrated poet herself, she became quite familiar with the likes of T.S.Eliot, Ezra Pound, Allan Ginsberg, Raymond Carver and Sylvia Plath. 

Lorde spent much of her early life working with Universal to develop her sound and artistic vision. She was spotted at the age of 12 by A&R scout Scott Maclachlan and later signed to Universal at the age of 13 and began working with songwriters at 14. "I started writing songs when I was 13 or 14 because I've always been a huge reader. My mum's a poet and we've always had so many books, and that's always been a big thing for me, arguably more so than music," she said.